[OlintoJr]

I have seen the question of what order to take the exams is best come across this forum many times. Now that I’ve taken a few section I would like to share my experiences and hopefully add some insight as to the overlapping of exam content. I feel the order I took the exams in (which was pure luck as I just randomly picked them) is a very good order to take them in.

The first exam I began with was FAR. It was content overload from day 1. There is an a ton of info in this section and I am glad I got this out of the way first as the sections to follow felt like highschool quizzes compared to this thing.

I took AUD next and as many of you have probably heard, there is a benefit to taking this post-FAR as you will have all of the financial accounting concepts fresh and will be able to better analyze situations that would raise red flags in the audit world. I would agree with this and do recommend taking it after FAR.

Next up I took BEC. I was very surprised with the content I saw in B1 of the Becker BEC review as it was essentially a summary of AUD concepts. There was a TON of overlapping content here, and I was surprised because I never heard anyone mention this before. I would definitely recommend taking BEC after AUD. If you use Becker to study you will see what I mean with the overlapping material. You could probably skip the B1 lecture and still score 80s on that chapters MC if you have the AUD concepts down (although I wouldn’t advise doing this)

I haven’t taken REG yet but it is next up but I can only assume there wont be too much overlap from other sections on here.

Just thought I’d share those thoughts to anyone who is trying to figure out what to take next.

FAR - 11/30/14 -79
AUD - 2/19/15 -86
BEC - 4/09/15 -86
REG - 11/30/15 -87

I'M DONE! ITS OVER! WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

[shinallsm]

Reg – 8 chapters, 2nd longest Becker wise for material, can apply it somewhat to FAR with journal entries,

FAR- Take the journal entries, and some basic stuff you learned in REG, plus its the longest one so REG is a good warm up

AUD – After far, for the reasons you listed above

BEC – After AUD, for the reasons you listed above.

Also considering REG & FAR are considered the toughest 2, if you pass those it's all down hill, and you dont have to worry about losing a BEC or AUD credit if you can't get passed REG and FAR

REG - 90 - 10/31/14
FAR - 77 - 1/3/15
AUD - 89 - 4/1/15
BEC - ?? - 5/27/15

[TheGuyCPA]

I took FAR first because of the amount of material i wanted to get it out of the way first.

FAR - 80
REG - 78
AUD - 88
BEC - 84

State of Illinois Licensed CPA as of September 2015

[thechapman]

I thought FAR > AUD > REG > BEC was perfect

Passed - 2014

[Anonymous]

It's all about timing.

I did BEC>AUD>FAR and currently doing REG.

My situation allowed me to start in July, so I only had 1 month to study. BEC was the obvious choice for such little time. I then studied for AUD and took it beginning of Q3 which I found some overlap with BEC. Overall though, there's a much greater emphasis on B1 in BEC than on AUD. I definitely would not skimp on COSO just because you might've reviewed it in AUD.

I scheduled FAR for end of Q4, but I was in the process of buying a house so I had to push it back to January, which worked in my favor because I definitely needed the extra 2 weeks in December (company shutdown) to get time to study, as the amount of material is just massive. Honestly, I found little overlap between FAR and AUD. I had 1 accounting related SIM on AUD, but it was on a topic so obscure, that even if I took FAR beforehand I would not have gotten it. My bet was that it was pre-test. Of course this is only my experience..

Now I'm doing REG, which coincides with tax season, so I'm actually learning a lot while doing my personal taxes as I bought a house last year and have rental properties. I'm able to apply all that towards REG.

So honestly, there's the formulaic FAR>AUD>REG>BEC method, but it's in no way the “best” order.

Btw, there is some overlap between Ethics/SOX on REG and Ethics on AUD. Other than that, there isn't much overlap between any of the other 3 exams.

[Anonymous]

REG has little to no overlap with the other 3. I'd recommend taking it first or last, preferably first. AUD & FAR have the most overlap IMO.

[jschrei2]

My schedule was FAR, REG, AUD, BEC. I've passed FAR and REG and taking AUD on Monday, then BEC at the end of May. If I had to do it over, I would have taken AUD right after FAR since there is so much overlap. My original thought was to take FAR and REG first because I knew those would be the two hardest for me and I wanted to get them out of the way first.

FAR- 88
REG- 88
AUD- 93
BEC-86

[Last Chance CPA]

The general consensus by most people (at least on this forum) is FAR > AUD > REG > BEC. I just happened to pass BEC and kept failing REG…

Here are reasons why:

-FAR to AUD makes perfect sense because you audit financial statements. The SIMs have overlap as well.

-REG then BEC leaves the “generic” exam to last, and it is easy to tackle BEC. Probably a very nice way to finish off the CPA.

-Hard > easy > hard > easy – FAR > AUD > REG > BEC. Makes perfect sense. Give yourself a break in between..

I wouldn't do it any other way…

FAR - 76
AUD - 75
BEC - 75
REG - 76

Now I need some experience!!! And some networking...

[Mamabear]

I agree with Last Chance CPA. If I had it to do over again (thank god I don't!) I would do FAR then AUD then REG then BEC. I did BEC, AUD, FAR, REG. Saving the two with the most material was incredibly dumb on my part, but I didn't know any better. I only knew that I wanted to build my confidence up with BEC and I did. So much so, that I didn't take AUD as seriously as I should have.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[mommyof3texans]

I decided on BEC first before I read all the great advice on here and mostly because of a short window to study for my first so I chose BEC. Now, after reading the advice, I'm doing FAR then AUD then REG

BEC - 02/21/15 - 82
FAR - 05/29/15 - 82
AUD - 07/09/15 - 93
REG - 11/14/15 - 80

All done!!!

[Anonymous]

I agree with Last Chance CPA. FAR>AUD>REG> BEC seems perfect in hindsight. I went BEC>REG> and now I'm on a deadline trying to finish up with AUD and FAR, which are not my strong areas. If I fail and lose credit for my exams passed, I will for sure be taking them in the FAR>AUD>REG> BEC order.

[Author]

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